Thaindian News

Karachi, Feb 8 (IANS) The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has included former skipper Wasim Akram in an inquiry committee formed last week to probe the national team’s poor performance in Australia.
The six-man committee was dismissed as an eye wash by several former Test greats, because some of the committee members were either on the PCB payroll or had close association with Ijaz Butt, the board chairman.

Two days after the committee was formed, Haroon Rasheed, a former Pakistan Test batsman and director of PCB’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) resigned as one of the committee members, saying that his reputation was at stake because of criticism against the probe panel.

“Mr. Wasim Akram has been included in the Inquiry Committee formulated earlier to evaluate the national team’s performance on the tour of Australia. His name has been included in place of Mr. Haroon Rasheed who has resigned from the inquiry committee,” said a PCB media release issued Monday.

The committee Sunday summoned Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam and captain Mohammad Yousuf to explain the team’s abysmal performance on their tour of Australia.

Pakistan lost all their matches on the tour — the Tests by 3-0 and one-day matches by 5-0 before going down in the only Twenty20 match on Friday.

The six-man committee is headed by former captain Wasim Bari, who is the PCB’s chief operating officer. The others on the board are PCB governing Board member Wazir Ali Khoja, PCB director Zakir Khan, former team manager Yawar Saeed and PCB legal adviser Taffazul Rizvi.

Bari, a former Pakistan test wicketkeeper, said the committee will start its work this coming Friday.

“We will meet the team’s coach, manager and captain in a bid to get their reports about the tour,” Bari said, adding that the committee will try its best to come out with its findings as soon as possible.